It’s a good question to ask since BSR is, according to Hollender, the largest and most well-known organization promoting socially responsible business practices. Hollender’s answer in so many words: “No.”

I sense the same ineffectiveness with conferences such as GreenTown. My college, Columbia College Chicago, hosted it recently, and I covered Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s speech there, as well as a panel on waste diversion. But did it actually do anything to help the planet? Will the city officials who attended actually take anything away from it? Yet to be known. (If it’s hard to find the tangible results of something as big as this, hasn’t it failed anyway?)

How about the one-year get-together of players in the Chicago Climate Action Plan—was this any more than a back rub for those involved? I doubt it.

So thanks, Mr. Hollender, for saying what needs to be said. I hope I can always be that way myself.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at my school this morning, at an environmental conference. Had to post a stock photo because I don’t yet have a camera…

I ate breakfast with him before his speech, basically a preview of the kinds of things he was gonna say, then live-blogged the speech itself on twitter.com/greenletters. The transcript of the liveblog is below for your consumption. I left out the analysis. If I end up doing that for a class, I’ll listen to a recording of the speech. (I’ll let you see that, too, if I do it.)